


our game of hide and seek has just begun

by GuardianKarenTerrier



Series: adrien augreste 2020 [15]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien AUGreste 2020, Friendship, Gen, Nonbinary Alya Césaire, POV Alya Césaire, Partnership, Platonic Cuddling, Podfic Welcome, Team Bonding, Trans Character, for nino and alya, mostly fluff! for once, oblivio aftermath in here, sorta unwittingly, tell a better joke, tell a joke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:20:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25937326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GuardianKarenTerrier/pseuds/GuardianKarenTerrier
Summary: "Okay, I've never been so bored in my life.  Someone, please, tell a joke or something."  Alya lets their head thump back against the wall with a groan.Stakeouts sounded a lot more fun on paper.  Stakeouts sounded cool and mysterious and secret agent-y.Stakeouts weren't supposed to be so incredibly dull.Chat Noir rises to the challenge, though, green eyes gleaming in the dark.  His tail swishes by his feet, barely brushing the rough tiles of their chosen rooftop, as he eagerly starts with,  "There once was a man from Nantucket-"
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire & Nino Lahiffe, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe
Series: adrien augreste 2020 [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1860751
Comments: 47
Kudos: 272





	our game of hide and seek has just begun

**Author's Note:**

> for the 'tell a joke' prompt for adrien augreste 2020. y'all this one is later than the others bc it was written in a _hurry_ this has not been a good week for me and i am _exhausted_

"Okay, I've never been so bored in my _life._ Someone, please, tell a joke or something." Alya lets their head thump back against the wall with a groan. 

Stakeouts sounded a lot more fun on paper. Stakeouts sounded cool and mysterious and secret agent-y. 

Stakeouts weren't supposed to be _so incredibly dull._

Chat Noir rises to the challenge, though, green eyes gleaming in the dark. His tail swishes by his feet, barely brushing the rough tiles of their chosen rooftop, as he eagerly starts with, "There once was a man from Nantucket-" 

Carapace and Ladybug get in each other's way trying to slap a hand over Chat's mouth. Chat Noir dodges easily, ducking back towards Alya. "- who kept all his cash in a-" 

"Tell a _better_ joke, Chat," Alya interrupts, saving Nino and Ladybug the trouble. Even if Alya _is_ privately kinda disappointed that Chat Noir apparently only knows the clean version anyway. Alya's been trying to get someone to tell them the filthy version of that joke for ages; by now they think Anansi was lying about ever having known it at all. 

Chat Noir pouts, but barely. He was pretty clearly just trying to get a rise out of their better halves, anyway, and Alya can appreciate that. Alya's pretty sure Chat's just as bored as they are. 

Because it's been _five hours._

And that's just the time since they'd gotten Alya and Nino roped in. They're not entirely sure how long Chat and Ladybug had been at this before then. 

Alya's steadily getting more convinced that they and Nino are only here _because_ Chat's bored. It's not that Ladybug isn't obviously bored, too, because she is, but Alya is starting to think that Ladybug still got the two of them for Chat- Ladybug seems a little more focused than her partner. 

A little. Not a lot. Ladybug's still nudging Chat Noir and swapping what are clearly in-jokes with him under her breath and, for a very awkward hour and a half, sprawling on the rooftop with her partner's head on her stomach while she'd casually pet his hair and made conversation with Nino while Chat Noir purred and went half-asleep with contentment. 

Alya and Nino had just. Just found their own spot up against the wall from the adjoining roof and silently agreed not to comment. 

It's not like they aren't guilty of some pretty mushy couple-y stuff themselves, but- 

Well, they're actually dating. Chat and Ladybug are not. 

Chat and Ladybug clearly do this sort of thing often enough for it to be familiar and comfortable even around Rena Rouge and Carapace. 

The two heroes also apparently have boring nights often enough to have developed their own methods to deal with them, which is frankly a whole lot better than Nino and Alya are doing. 

There's a tiny stack of leaves and twigs up against the adjoining roof that forms their makeshift shelter, and Chat and Ladybug both keep poking at and rearranging it like it's some game only the two of them know, and Nino's giving it increasingly distressed looks as the two more experienced heroes nudge it into more and more arcane distributions. 

Alya's not concerned, because Alya's honestly pretty sure they're doing that specifically _because_ it's making Nino eye their sad little pile of debris suspiciously. 

Like they said: they're all _really bored._

"What is this akuma even _about_ again?" Nino asks, twitching slightly as Chat Noir nudges a stray leaf with his foot. 

Ladybug sighs. "Hiding. Specifically, playing hide and seek." 

Nino gestures mutely around their rooftop. 

Chat Noir accidentally knocks half his twigs over and quickly scrambles to collect them again. Alya gives up on scanning the skyline and goes to help, because it's not like they have anything better to do. 

"We're hiding," Ladybug says, dryly. "We're hiding badly, but we're hiding." 

"Okay but _why."_ Nino throws his hands up just as Alya and Chat exchange amused glances. "If he's supposed to be the seeker in this game, he's apparently pretty bad at it!" 

"Maybe he's more of a keeper," Alya murmurs to Chat Noir, who snorts and fails to cover it up. He does give them a curious sideways glance, though, so Alya shrugs. "Hey, I can make the joke if I want." They find themselves making a face a moment later as they think about it. "Alright, maybe I regret it, I take back what I said about you needing a better joke before." 

"Maybe we both need better jokes," Chat Noir says wryly, one ear flicking and then rotating to where Ladybug and Nino's hissed whispers are slowly starting to rise in volume. "Anyway, he's pretty bad at this, we think? His powers only seem to trigger when he's doing the seeking, but he also _keeps hiding,_ so we're not sure what to do from here. I think we're at the point of playing last man standing." 

Alya stares at him. 

Chat Noir puts his hands up. "I am not a planner." 

_"Yes you-_ you know what, never mind. Hey, Ladybug?" 

Ladybug and Carapace both stop arguing to turn their stares to Alya, which is way more unnerving than they're willing to admit. Even _Nino's_ stare through his hood and goggles sends a shiver up their spine (admittedly, their shivers are not necessarily from nerves. Or at least not _that_ kind of nerves). 

"Why doesn't just _one_ of us go find... uh." Alya looks to Chat Noir for help. "You know, I still don't this akuma's name?" 

Chat Noir sighs, climbing to his feet and offering them a hand up. "It." 

Alya narrows their eyes at him. 

"No, seriously, I _swear,_ the kid's name is It. Like. The akuma. The akuma is called It, because he's... it?" Chat tries, his tail starting to lash in agitation. "Like, tag, you're it, only it's not tag? The game's not tag, I mean? It's... it's not tag." Chat's shoulders slump. "The kid's It, unless he tags any of us, which we uh, wanna avoid? We don't know what happens if any of _us_ are it." 

"Dude, I _seriously_ hate Hawkmoth," Nino mutters, which about sums up how Alya feels right now. 

"Okay, but why don't we just go find... " Alya considers for a moment, because wow, no. "...Olly." 

Sitting on this roof is _very dull,_ even with nearly the best company they could ask for- Marinette's been too busy for a friendly hangout for days, and Adrien's been too busy for approximately a lifetime, and she and Nino figure that while Ladybug and Chat Noir don't make up for their best friends they're certainly the next best thing-

-Alya's gonna take their jokes where they can _get_ them.

Nino's head had sunk until he was cradling it in his hands while Chat was trying to explain the akuma's name, but now his head lifts again and his eyes flash tiredly. "...Olly?" 

"Oxenfree!" Alya cheers, and Chat Noir chokes on laughter even as Ladybug moves up beside him and slaps a hand on his back pre-emptively. 

"We're not gonna go find... uh, Olly..." Ladybug eyes Alya, who grins. "... Because he _asked_ us to come find him." 

Alya blinks. "So, don't take this harsh or anything, but I'm beginning to think your reputation as a planner is undeserved." 

This nets Alya identical snorts from Nino and Chat Noir. Interestingly, it also earns one from Ladybug. 

"We don't know enough about his powers," Chat Noir explains, slipping seamlessly into a serious tone Alya hasn't heard very often. They're not sure they've ever heard it outside of battle. 

It still sounds somehow familiar, but not in any way they can place. 

"We're not sure why he wants us to come to him, but it sorta screams trap, you know?" Chat scratches behind one ear, sheepishly. "And, well, we figured if _we_ hid out long enough then he'd _have_ to seek, except that that got, uh, boring, so we decided if we got you two maybe it'd at least be fun?" 

Alya's oddly flattered. 

Also slightly annoyed. But mostly flattered. 

"So, dude, do we like... even _need_ to be transformed right now?" Nino asks, eyes crinkling in a way that's obvious even behind his goggles. "Are we... are we _moral support_ right now?" 

"I'm always in my trans form, babe," Alya says, a little blankly as they try to comprehend that the heroes just _want them there,_ and they return Chat's high five mostly on autopilot as Nino groans. 

"See, you don't need his jokes, you have better jokes. Barely better, but better." Ladybug offers Nino a hand and hauls him over into their impromptu huddle. "And, uh, maybe. Maybe a little." 

Chat Noir shrugs. "In our defence, this is very, very boring. And you guys are... not that." He glances back a little forlornly at the sticks and leaves that had so exasperated Nino. "And makeshift Jenga goes way worse than you would think." 

"No, it doesn't, it goes way worse than Chat thinks," Ladybug corrects, a note of fondness snaking into her voice. "It always goes way worse than he always thinks. I keep telling you, Chat, literally no one else expects makeshift Jenga to go _well_." 

"Kim," Nino mutters under his breath, and Alya sees Chat's ear twitch in Nino's direction as he says it and then sees Chat trying not to laugh. 

They're not gonna question whether or not Chat knows Kim. He's definitely at least met Kim, anyway, and it takes approximately two minutes of exposure to Kim to grasp that yeah he'd probably be down for makeshift Jenga. He'd probably be worse about it than Chat Noir. 

"So is this like, a regular _thing_ with you two then?" Alya's curious now, especially now that they know they aren't about to be in immediate danger. It's been five hours. It's been longer, considering they don't know how long Chat Noir and Ladybug had been up here alone. Any danger they're still in is definitely not immediate. 

They should probably assume they're still in danger, though. They pretty much always are. At this point, it's just safer to assume. 

The citywide butterfly phobia would be funny if it wasn't so depressing. 

"Which part?" Chat's ears flick towards Alya as he inclines his head. Alya almost touches their own mask at the reminder of his cat-slit eyes, which are much more obvious this close. Alya's never remembered to check what their own pupils might be doing during their transformation, and there's never any video that comes close enough to see. They do seem to have darkvision where they didn't before, though, and that feels like a big enough hint. 

"I meant the makeshift Jenga specifically, but I guess the hanging out on rooftops in general." Five hours today- and over a year spent fighting Hawkmoth. Chat and Ladybug are probably practically living in each other's pockets by now just fighting akuma and amok, they probably don't- 

"Oh, we do that like every other night," Ladybug says, casually, and Alya's thoughts tumble to a stop as they try to work that out. 

The heroes see each other either every day or so close to it that the difference doesn't matter. The heroes meet up more on top of that, because their patrols are hardly a secret. If anything they make a point of being visible when they patrol. 

Alya has _known_ that the two are one solid team more than they're individual heroes, but they're starting to realise they hadn't known just how deep that partnership runs. By the sound of it, Chat and Ladybug spend most of their time together and then choose to spend what little free time they have together on top of that.

Alya's never asked if they're together, not even in an interview. Back when anyone still asked they'd always said no. 

By now they're pretty sure neither hero would be able to give her an actual answer. Alya's not sure the heroes still _know_ the answer. 

They'd been so casual about lying across each other earlier. They're so tactile with each other; they touch each other constantly, little taps on shoulders or brushing against each other's sides or that comfortable outright sprawl. Alya knows they're partners, but- 

But they're more in sync with each other than Alya and Nino are. Alya and Nino have gotten akumatised _together,_ which just isn't generally a thing that happens, and they've been very uncomfortably more in sync ever since. 

Sometimes they just sort of forget to have conversations out loud, now. Sometimes the way they play off and read each other's silent tells or arrested motions make their friends tease them about psychic abilities of their own, or at least, it does until Marinette catches exactly _how_ uncomfortable it makes them both. She stops teasing immediately, and once she stops so does Adrien (and if Adrien is _seriously_ trying to get his people-reading cues from Marinette he's about to hit one hell of a stumbling block), and once Adrien stops so, gradually, does everyone else. 

It'd be different, maybe, if that synchronicity hadn't happened after Hawkmoth had first forced it on them. If the feeling of knowing each other too well for the time they've been together had been a conscious choice. 

Neither of them _remembers_ being Oblivio. No one actually remembers Oblivio. 

But that doesn't mean that the effects hadn't lasted. 

That doesn't mean there's not still sometimes an uncomfortable silence when Alya throws something and Nino catches it without looking, when one of them completes the other's sentence without realising, when they've tried to call each other three times in a row and keep failing because they keep trying to call at the same instant. 

But they don't have to give all that credit to Hawkmoth. They _don't,_ because- because Ladybug and Chat Noir do at least those first two things, and possibly the third, and probably more. The two heroes are just as integral to each other as Alya and Nino are and far more comfortable with it. 

( ... but it wouldn't have happened to them, either, if they didn't have to devote so much time to fighting Hawkmoth. Would it). 

"We're always out here for patrol anyway," Chat's saying when Alya tunes back in. "Makes sense to spend it together." 

Alya opens their mouth, shuts it, and turns to meet Nino's worried eyes right when they expect to. Like always, and at least right now that doesn't sting as much as it might otherwise. 

Nino reads the question and the comment in their eyes and nods, slowly, eyes drifting to Chat Noir and then back to them. 

Because that doesn't make sense. 

Splitting up to cover more ground would make sense. 

And Chat Noir and Ladybug are both quick thinkers, they have to be to pull off some of their wilder plans, this is something that should be obvious to them both. It still _genuinely_ doesn't seem to have occurred to them. 

This is around when Alya realises that all _four_ of them should probably be split up right now. This is around when Alya realises that this is not actually how you play hide and seek. (Well, it's one way, but they kinda doubt that's the way they're playing. Hawkmoth wouldn't be able to keep himself from fish puns if Olly were playing Sardines. Neither would Chat, honestly). 

This is, extremely unfortunately, also when Olly finally shows up. 

"Found you!" the akuma booms, hovering ominously at the edge of the next roof over, fingers and toes tensed on the edges and quivering with nervous energy. The kid is like _eight,_ he shouldn't be threatening, and yet Alya finds themself readying their weapon at Nino's side anyway. 

Alya is aware Nino had just instinctively tried to shove them behind himself the way Chat Noir had tried to do with Ladybug. This has worked out on no one's part. 

The akuma draws in a deep breath, eyes lighting up in glee. "You're- "

"- _outta here,"_ Chat Noir cuts in hastily, wrapping an arm around Nino's waist and throwing them both backwards off the roof. Alya might be worried about that if Ladybug wasn't doing exactly the same thing with them. 

They're fine, naturally. Ladybug and Chat Noir swing them all over onto the next rooftop and they're already running when they hit it. 

Hawkmoth's akuma tend to get saddled with some weird weaknesses. 

Apparently Olly's really bad at _tag._

(And if maybe the heroes play tag longer than is _really_ necessary, and if maybe they start meeting up to play a little more often, well. Alya doesn't think anyone's actually gonna begrudge them that). 

**Author's Note:**

> most emergency situations: a lot of nothing happening interspersed with WAY TOO MUCH HAPPENING, ALL AT ONCE, OHSHITWHY 
> 
> alya knows this. alya is however REAL BORED. 
> 
> title is based on a line from lizz robinett's hide and seek. someday ill write this actual battle in more detail, the way i meant to, and the song is definitely the inspiration for that. 
> 
> ... hawkmoth you have GOT to think harder about naming an akuma that ~~i know im writing this shhh~~


End file.
